The State government has announced a bonus of ₹4,000 for government employees for Onam. Employees who are not entitled for the bonus will get a special festival allowance of ₹2,750.
The decision was taken at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.
All government employees will be entitled to a festival advance of ₹15,000 which can be repaid in five instalments, according to the Finance Department.
Part-time, contingent employees will be given ₹5,000 as advance on their salaries. Service pensioners and employees under the contributory pension scheme will be paid a special festival allowance of ₹1,000.
Given the financial crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was intense speculation whether the government would give the Onam ‘tradition’ of bonuses and allowances a miss this year.
The government is also spending ₹1,481.87 crore for disbursing the social security pensions for the months of July and August ahead of Onam.
